Three Late Late Show talking points, including a 'one-off' Peggy Seeger moment
Peggy Seeger performing on The Late Late Show
It's the first of 2026 — and it was one for the history books.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was the first time the programme has dedicated an entire episode to Irish traditional music.
Opening with “the seisiún of all seisiúns,” dozens of the country’s top musicians came together for a traditional tune, including Kevin Conneff from The Chieftains, Fiachna Ó Braonáin from Hothouse Flowers and Lisa Canny from Biird.
International stars, including folk legend Peggy Seeger and actor Ricky Tomlinson, were also on the bill, with the latter performing a rousing rendition of Plus, Dónal Lunny became the first musician to be inducted into Trad Music Hall of Fame.
Throughout the show, we heard lots of tunes, plenty of stories, and had a few laughs too. Here are some standout moments.
Trailblazing American folk singer Peggy Seeger popped into Donnybrook Studios, treating viewers to a very special performance of on the keyboard.
Seeger was the muse behind the iconic love song, written by her late husband Ewan MacColl.
“Ewan and I were estranged at the time,” she admitted. “I was 21 when I met him, and he said he was 39... he was actually 41 and he was married with a child. That was not my idea of the perfect match.
“So, we were a bit estranged, and I went back to the United States. I was living in California at the time, and it was very expensive to have transatlantic calls... so we were talking, estranged talking, and I said, ‘They want a happy love song, short.’
"[At the time] I was singing American folk songs where somebody’s getting murdered or being shipped away to Australia or something like that... I didn’t have any happy love songs. He said, ‘Try this.’ And he sang it over the phone.”
The track, which has been covered by everyone from Johnny Cash to Roberta Flack, Leona Lewis and James Blake, is “a war horse that is still on the racetrack,” she said.
Following her husband's passing in 1989, Seeger did not perform the song for some twenty years. However, she has since found love again with a second “life partner” and says she has found a way to perform it again, dedicating it to both MacColl and her current partner, Irene Pyper-Scott.
In her ninetieth year, she is still regularly performing all over the world. Getting up on stage and doing the show is no bother to her, she told Kielty, but the travelling is “murderous.”
“I sing for free, they pay me to travel.”
The US singer received a standing ovation from the audience and the musicians on stage following her performance. Tapping her finger against the microphone, she asked Kielty if she could say something before moving on.
“I have sung that song for over 75 years and that’s the first time I have ever forgotten the lyrics.
“So if that was recorded... that was a once-off special, I made up the lyrics in the second chorus.”
It’s been an incredible year for the 11-woman-strong trad supergroup that is Biird. Kielty started the show by asking Lisa Canny, singer, harpist and founding member of the group, to reflect on the year that’s been – which included touring with Ed Sheeran and performing at Derry Girls’ Saoirse Monica-Jackson’s wedding.
“It’s been non-stop since we went on our debut Irish tour,” the Mayo woman acknowledged. Explaining how some of their biggest moments came to be, she said the girls met Ed Sheeran at last year’s Fleadh, where they joined him for “a few tunes”.
And then, “he invited us to come on his world tour”.
“It’s been brilliant,” she said. “He’s been so good.”
“We’re taking the summer clothes out of the attic early this year, and we are going to New Zealand and Australia with Ed, and doing our own headline shows out there for the first time as well.”
“Still available for weddings?” Kielty enquired, referring to the band’s involvement in Saoirse Monica-Jackson’s wedding last summer.
“I mean, when national treasure Sarah Monica-Jackson rings, yes, yes, we will do a wedding!”
Canny revealed she first met Monica-Jackson at a festival, “like all good friendships start”.
“[We] literally fell in love with each other.”
For Irish fans, she also assured us they will be back on Irish soil in the spring, “hitting all corners” of the country before starting on the festival circuit again.
Kevin Conneff of The Chieftains formed part of The Late Late Show’s ‘trad supergroup’ on the night.
The Meath man also spoke to Kielty about his last moments with Seán Keane, the influential fiddler who joined the group in 1968 and passed away three years ago, shortly after performing for US President Joe Biden.
“We played for Biden [during the president’s trip to Mayo in 2023] and Seán and I had a jar afterwards in the hotel in Westport where we were staying. That was the last time... I’m so happy I had that hour and a half with him in the bar, just chatting away about old times and things. Ten days later, he was gone.”
As he was “remembering old friends,” the Meath man also treated the audience to a few bars of as his party piece.
